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“We owe an implicit reverence to all the institutions of our ancestors.” (Edmund Burke, A Vindication of Natural Society, 1756).

Urgent Message to All Users:We are now a federal tax exempt organization. This will allow us to make dramatic long-range changes. We will collect large volumes of old records relating to Barnes and Oxford families discussed here that are scattered in many courthouses throughout the U.S. Most of these documents are not currently available online elsewhere. This will bring about a radical redesign of the website. If you wish to be kept informed of new documents as they are added to the site, it is recommended that you subscribe to one or both of our two quarterly family newsletters. Instructions for doing so are discussed below. Our no spam lists are shared with no one. Because of the volume of new content failure to do this will probably result on your not being informed of new information added to the site. At the same time, we welcome your tax-deductible donation by credit card below or sending a check to Barnes-Oxford Genealogy Research Foundation, Inc., 1240 Taylorsville Road, Lenoir, NC 28645. You may also donate usin PayPal or a credit card using the Donate Button below.

This site is devoted to the genealogy of Irish immigrant Brinsley Barnes (1713-1794) Solomon Barnes (circa 1752-1807), immigrant John Oxford (1639-1719), the History of the North Carolina Foothills and the Lenoir Family Papers. Brinsley settled in Chester County Pennsylvania before 1734 migrated to Orange (Chatham) County, North Carolina in 1753 and later to Wilkes County, NC where he died. Less is know of Solomon who is of English descent. All Oxford’s in American descend from John. He immigrated from England at the age of 13 indentured himself and worked on a Virginia tobacco plantation for five years, to earn his freedom.